REPORT

If you witness a situation of child sexual exploitation, you can and you must report this situation in order to protect the child on one hand and in order to help the competent authorities to stop the offender(s) on the other hand.

Some information and recommendations can help you in this process:

Don’t stay alone with your doubts! A report is not a denunciation. It will enable the competent authorities to check whether your doubts are real or not. Many children can be protected thanks to a report.

Don’t tell yourself “it’s useless”! You may not have a lot of information to share, but if 2, 3, 5 or 10 persons report a same situation, the accumulation of information can turn out to be useful!

Don’t make your own enquiry! Your role is absolutely not to bring proves to the police. You are a citizen/professional and you have doubts about a situation. Gather all the information you have (don’t make any supposition by saying for instance “I think she doesn’t have parents or I think he lives here”; just report what you have seen or heard) and share them by following the indications under mentioned. Making your own investigations could jeopardise a judicial enquiry (ongoing or upcoming), put yourself or even a child in danger.

How to report

If you are abroad

Many children are victim of sexual exploitation in travel and tourism. On holiday, business trip or during any other occasion, you can witness one of these situations. How to react?

Contact an Internal Security Agent (ASI) or a Liaison Officer (ODL) among your Embassy or Consulate in the country where you are travelling or living. People who work there are representatives of your country of origin: they can help you in the process.

Report what you have witnessed on the international reporting platform reportchildsextourism.eu or download freely the application on your mobile phone. By clicking on your country’s flag, you can report a case of child abuse/exploitation to the competent authorities of your country. If the elements you share are sufficient, the authority will then determine whether an enquiry can be initiated or not.

This platform has been implemented in collaboration with national police services in Europe, Europol and Interpol. It allows the implementation of extraterritorial laws and the conviction of offenders, even when the abuse has occurred abroad. For instance, if a French national sexually exploit/abuse a child during a travel in Morocco or in Nepal, he can still be arrested and judged in France once he is back.

If you meet a situation in the exercise of your functions, don’t hesitate to speak about it with your manager. Your company may be member of the “Code” (an initiative to protect children from sexual exploitation in travel and tourism) and internal procedures for reporting may exist to face this type of situation.

If you are in France

In case of immediate danger, call the National Police at 112 (from your mobile phone) or at 17 (from a fixed line phone).

As a professional, don’t hesitate to report a situation among a “Cellule de Recueil des Informations Préoccupantes (CRIP)” or among the Public Prosecutor’s department. Besides, don’t forget that you can also refer to the judge for children.

On the Internet

Online child sexual exploitation is a growing phenomenon. You can see materials of child sexual abuse or witness criminal behaviors online. If you do, you can report by using the abovementioned process, but it remains useful to report online by clicking on this button:

By clicking on this link, you will report a content to Point de contact, who is the French service receiving online reports. To discover how your report will be treated, click here.